EdTech News and Trends

As a service to its readers, Faculty Focus has reserved this section largely for news announcements on education technology and campus trends. Faculty Focus welcomes press releases that pertain to technology that is used at today’s higher education institutions as well as studies that relate to higher ed teaching and learning trends. To submit your press release for consideration, please email it to Mary Bart at mary.bart (at) facultyfocus (dot) com.

Open Educational Resources (OER) in higher education have the potential to triple in use as primary courseware over the next five years, from 4 percent to 12 percent, according to a survey of more than 500 faculty by Cengage Learning. In addition, the use of OER for supplemental learning materials may nearly quadruple in size, from 5 percent to 19 percent. These and other findings are available in a new report, Open Educational Resources (OER) and the Evolving Higher Education Landscape.

An annual survey on video in higher education found that more than half of the institutions who responded now use a video solution integrated into their Learning Management System. The figure is up 6% from 46% last year. In addition, three quarters of students in higher education use video in their assignments, up 4% on last year’s figure of 71%.

The 2015 Survey of Online Learning conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group in partnership with the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), Pearson, WCET, StudyPortals, and Tyton Partners, reveals the number of higher education students taking at least one distance education course in 2015 is up 3.9% over the previous year. Growth, however, was uneven; private non-profit institutions grew by 11.3% while private for-profit institutions saw their distance enrollments decline by 2.8%. These and other findings were published today in a report titled, “Online Report Card: Tracking Online Education in the United States.”

Embodied learning, adaptive teaching, and analytics of emotions are three trends highlighted in Innovating Pedagogy 2015. This annual report explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment that are having an impact on education worldwide. For the first time, the report is produced jointly by The Open University and SRI International, the US-based research and development institute.

Today’s young adults are often criticized for turning to social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram for real-time feedback, but new research from McGraw-Hill Education suggests that this behavior could be a significant asset when it comes to studying with the help of technology. According to “The Impact of Technology on College Student Study Habits,” the third report in an annual series conducted by McGraw-Hill Education and fielded by Hanover Research, 87% of college students report that having access to data analytics regarding their academic performance can have a positive impact on their learning experience. The finding suggests that students seek the same immediate feedback in the classroom as they do in social media and that this can be beneficial to learning.

The 2014 Survey of Online Learning conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group and co-sponsored by the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), Pearson and Tyton Partners, reveals the number of higher education students taking at least one distance education course in 2014 is up 3.7 percent from the previous year. While this represents the slowest rate of increase in over a decade, online enrollment growth far exceeded that of overall higher education.

Online education platform WizIQ launches WizIQ Recordor, an easy to use authoring tool for teachers to create synchronized video lectures using their PowerPoint presentations. The tool runs as a simple add-in to Microsoft PowerPoint and is free to download.

Today at the 20th annual Online Learning Consortium International Conference, newrow_ (formerly Watchitoo) launched the industry’s first mobile learning platform to allow 25 or more students and instructors to work simultaneously in a live video classroom environment from any mobile device. The newrow_ for education platform seamlessly integrates with top Learning Management Systems (LMS), including Blackboard, Canvas and Brightspace. These systems, which are used by some of the world’s leading educational institutions, can now offer live mobile video classroom environments at scale.

Turnitin, the leaders in originality checking and online grading, today announced the company has reached a definitive agreement to acquire LightSide Labs, an online service that uses machine learning to provide real-time, automated feedback on student writing. The agreement will allow Turnitin to integrate its leading originality checking and online grading features with LightSide Labs’ innovative approach to providing high quality feedback to students across the writing process. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Each higher education institution, course, and classroom is unique, yet instructors today face a series of common teaching and learning challenges. Institutions are using technology and content solutions to address these various educational challenges. Pearson released a report today highlighting…